What Really Happened To Rising Rapper MIA

When Mathangi “Maya” Arulpragasam, known in the world of pop music as M.I.A., watched the story of her life in Steve Loveridge’s documentary MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. she wasn’t happy that a lot of her creative and political work wasn’t included.

The controversial Tamil/British rapper/artist/internet pioneer had trusted her friend and former fellow art student with her treasure trove of 700 hours of footage she had shot from an early age—not unlike Amy Winehouse—and he ultimately made the film highly personal, more personal than the Grammy and Oscar-nominated artist would have liked.

Still, even her 2007 hit song 'Paper Planes' is personal and trying to unravel her complex life inevitably touches on all aspects of her creativity. Essentially an eccentric, highly political livewire, her outspokenness led to Time magazine hailing her as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2009 at the height of her career.

Yet M.I.A.’s desire to outrage, including thrusting her middle finger during her performance at Madonna’s 2012 Super Bowl halftime show (where together with Nicki Minaj she was a kind of back-up to the superstar for Give me All Your Luvin’, a track the trio co-wrote) contributed to a downturn in her career following a multi-million dollar lawsuit with the NFL.

Ultimately she has survived, says Loveridge, because she only began in the music industry at 27, the age at which Winehouse and so many early bloomers died. “I think if Maya had become famous at 19 there is every possibility she could have collapsed under the weight of all the expectation and the media pressure.”

At 42 the stunning Arulpragasam still looks 27. She has not made an album since 2016’s AIM, a commercial disappointment, and although she has slowed down her music career—she is currently performing US concerts with Lauryn Hill - Loveridge hopes the film will help get her back on track.

Arulpragasam is the first to admit she is one of a kind. “As a Tamil woman there is not a person who went before who you could call up and ask, ‘How did the Tamil Diana Ross do it?’ So it’s like you’re doing everything on your own.”

While her political bent comes from her mostly absent father, Arul, the co-founder of the Tamil Resistance Movement, Maya inherited a lot of her determination from her mother Kala. She significantly named her first two albums after her parents. She was almost eleven when Kala took her three kids across two continents and started again, raising them on a London housing estate as refugees.

“Mum was incredibly strong for having three kids and three jobs and not knowing English and choosing to save the children and leave and not care what my dad thought. She was never involved in the political aspect and just wanted to save the kids. I see that as a strong feminist statement just as much as my struggle to go through the music industry and constantly be that weirdo girl.”

In the movie she is depicted as the foreigner wherever she went.

“It’s not like I wasn’t able to fit in, I just couldn't fit in because it would mean losing the other thing that I was before. I liked the Sri Lankan aspect of me and it took me ages to come to terms with it. Being an immigrant or a refugee was something I had to learn and then being a party person and arts student was another part of who I was. I couldn’t be one thing, so it was about being able to have a life that was based on my experience and being many things and finding a home some way. I guess my art became my home.”

Her life and art became intertwined. Initially using a groovebox sampler loaned from her friend, Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann, she achieved success for her unusual blend of hip hop, alternative rock, reggae and traditional Asian music which she initially loaded onto Myspace. She also developed her eye-catching colour-soaked fashion style. Still her fame came at a price, Loveridge confides in a separate interview.

“When Maya first started to become successful it was like a dream come true. Finally she had some validation, some money, so she could buy her mum a house and had no problems with bills. One of the consequences was that she became slightly isolated from the Tamil community, from her friends. Even for the fans there was a point at which her story was less relatable: she’s an immigrant from Sri Lanka and now she has a record deal. By the time she was engaged to Ben it started to become complicated.”

While living in Brooklyn between 2006 and 2008 Maya met musician and environmentalist Benjamin Bronfman, the son of billionaire Edgar Bronfman Jr., a former CEO of Warner Music Group and the Seagram Company. In the movie she notes how she’s not into wealth, so I ask her how she became engaged to this really rich guy.

“Yes, well, we were very different,” she concedes, drawing out her words. “We came from two opposite extremes of the world. But I’d dated someone creative like [DJ] Diplo before and it didn't necessarily bring me a stable relationship. So you can’t be judgmental. If I was going to judge his dad he could easily judge my dad and that was the deal we had.”

Two weeks after the Grammys in January 2009 she gave birth to their son Ikhyd Edgar Arular Bronfman. This was during the final stage of the Sri Lankan Civil War, before the country’s military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May.

Filmmaker Steve Loveridge. Photo: SuppliedSource:Whimn

Loveridge: “The Sri Lankan Civil War was really emotional, not just for Maya but all Tamils were traumatised watching these things happening overseas and failing to get the international community excited about intervening. Maya was the only Tamil celebrity people could find to go on TV, but she was like, ‘I’m having a baby this week’. That pressure didn't just crash her relationship, it crashed her recording career.”

Arulpragasam: “That moment is in the film where I just had to get to CNN and I’m obviously trying to have a normal life. I’m trying to have a baby and be married to the most acceptable human being on earth. But I was still problematic because I was doing advocacy work and it’s seen as controversial.

“Wealth became like a thing. I learnt that lesson as a human being. I thought that being the Cinderella and getting to go to the ball and marrying the prince was the thing to achieve as a refugee, but when I got there I found it was more than that for me.

"When I left and I didn't want it, the next seven years I was judged as a very shit pop star because I wasn’t wealthy, I didn't have the clothing label, I didn't make $200 million on my tour, I didn't have the documentaries to support my album and I didn’t have 100 million likes on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

"When I was not taking wealth as the only ticket people were like, ‘Well, you’ve made a terrible decision’. But had I lived that life I would get the very same criticism for having done it. So you can’t please people. You've just got to do what feels right.”

Hopefully M.I.A. and all of her identities can find time to return to play in Australia, as she did in 2007 as part of her Kala tour and for a series of 2011 Big Day Out concerts.

MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.screens at the Revelation Perth International Film Festival on July 12, 15 & 17 and at the Melbourne International Film Festival which runs from 2-19 August.

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